


Variations on a Theme: Pepper Potts

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 100 Themes Challenge, Gen, canon female love interest, some love for the ladies of marvel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 15:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A hundred different moments in the life of Pepper Potts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Variations on a Theme: Pepper Potts

**Author's Note:**

> Working on a 100 Themes challenge based around Pepper Potts (and by extent, her relationship with Tony).

The error is buried in a formula in an Excel doc that no one expects her to look at closely.

It’s just one more file, another piece of busy work her supervisor gave her to get her off his back. She’s too eager, too excited about this first real job and her enthusiasm is starting to backfire. Her co-workers whisper about her over their cubicles (she’s young, not stupid—she knows she’s made enemies already) and her boss just keeps pushing the most mundane, needless work her way. Shut up, sit down, be quiet. That’s what they want from her.

She’d checked the math again, double-checked the formula and the cell placement just to be sure. It’s not a small error—Stark Industries was a multi-billion dollar company, sure, but a ten million dollar error was bound to be noticed, right? Except this document has gone through three other revisions in accounting, including her supervisor, and as far as she can tell no one had caught it yet.

Her supervisor dismisses her worries, telling her that she’s got it wrong, to stop ‘trying to outshine everyone, Potts’. Later, she gets an email that amounts to a vague warning about overstepping her bounds. It makes her blood boil; she knows she’s right and her spineless wimp of a boss isn't going to keep her from doing what’s right for the company.

Full of righteous fury, Virginia opens a new email and attaches the file, typing a brief summary of the error including a notation about how if this had gone unchecked it was likely that the cost would have been compounded since the document was a template for other department expenditures.

Staring at the ‘To’ field, she takes a moment to silently pray that this won’t end up with her being summarily fired for seriously ignoring the chain of command. Then she very quickly types tstark@starkindustries.com into the field and pressed ‘Send’.

Nothing happens for a week. An entire week where Virginia watches her back, tenses whenever her co-workers walk by, and tries very hard to just bury herself in checking the costs on shipping manifests against billed charges.

She’s elbow deep in FedEx printouts on Friday afternoon when someone knocks on the edge of her cubicle wall.

“I told you I’d have these done by the end of the day,” she snaps, not looking up. Her supervisor’s been riding her ass all morning about getting these manifests done and she’s frankly not in the mood to deal with yet another interruption. 

“Well, that’s great. But I really don’t give a shit about whether or not that box actually cost $200 to ship to—where is that, Germany?” The drawling voice is unfamiliar and Virginia looks up to find Tony Stark himself leaning over the edge of her half-height wall, his head cocked as he tried to read the address on the manifest she’s working on.

“Mr. Stark! I’m sorry, I thought you were—”

“Yeah, yeah. I just came by to thank you for that spectacular display of bravado. Going right to the CEO—that takes balls.”

She feels her cheeks heat from the force of her blush and forces herself to keep meeting his gaze, not letting her voice waver despite how nervous she is right now. “I was right, wasn't I?”

“Oh, totally. Obie fired your boss about ten minutes ago for being a completely useless moron.” He grins at her surprise, reaching down to pluck the manifest out of her hand. He examines it with a look of distaste. “Seriously, they have you doing temp work?”

“I’m the new girl,” Virginia can’t quite believe what’s happening—her boss, fired? Tony Stark himself thanking her for something that should have gotten her a one way ticket out the door with a security escort? “I don’t have a lot of choice.”

“Well, doesn't matter now.” Stark tosses the manifest back on her desk and straightens up, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Pack up your things, Potts. You’re getting a promotion.”

“I—what?” She stares at him, uncomprehending.

“Promotion, Potts. You know, that thing that happens when you get rewarded for a job well done?”

There’s a ringing in her ears that Virginia can’t seem to get past and it’s making her dizzy. “A promotion to what, exactly?”

“Personal assistant, to me. I need an assistant and your talents are criminally wasted down here.” Stark frowns suddenly. “Unless you’re not interested?”

Pepper glances around the sea of cubicles and notices that her co-workers are all staring at the spectacle, some of them whispering furiously to one another. Something inside of her snaps—her last bit of sanity, maybe—and she stands up, grabbing her purse from her desk drawer. “When do I start?”

“Right now.” Stark grins at her and Virginia can’t help but grin back—he might be crazy, but right now Stark is offering her a lifeline and she’s going to take advantage of it.

After all, how bad can it be?


End file.
